Professor Volokh Discusses Charges Against High School Student for Recording Bullying in Deseret News Article

​April 28, 2014 -- Professor Eugene Volokh discussed a case involving a high school student who recorded classmates bullying him and was charged with disorderly conduct for doing so. His comments appear in a Deseret News article.

The wiretapping charge was dubious from the outset, says Eugene Volokh, a UCLA law professor and Washington Post civil liberties blogger.

While Pennsylvania is one of a few states that does requires both parties to know when a conversation is being recorded, Volokh notes that the state supreme court decided in 1998 that this requirement could only hold where there was a “justifiable expectation of privacy.”

“If you are talking to one other person, especially in a secluded place, the statute might apply,” Volokh said. “But in classroom with a teacher and classmates all around, it’s hard to see how you can see a reasonable expectation of privacy.”